Malayalam

Web References
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// General information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayalam
// Transliteration engine
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DAA1C682-777B-471A-8FD3-B45C37CE947C&displaylang=en
// Information from the Indian Government, including script information and sample sentences.
http://tdil.mit.gov.in/news.htm

Rederence Books
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A: Malayalam by R.E. Asher and T. C. Kumari
B: Parametric Studies in Malayalam Syntax by K. A. Jayaseelan
C: Malayalam, by T. E. Menon
D: Auxiliary Verbs in Malayalam by N. Rajasekharan Nair

General Information
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ISO Language ID: mal
Possible Malayalam speakers: malayalam.meetup.com/cities/us/wa/seattle/


Case
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Malayalam uses case marking to express the function of noun phrases.
Both nouns and pronouns use the same case marking system.
The case is added to the end of the noun, after any derivational suffixes or plural suffixes.
	stem (+ derivational suffix) (+ plural) + case.

Most Malayalam verbs have subjects with Nominative Case marking.
There are few verbs which induce Dative Case-marking of the subject.  
Two of these verbs are: be hungry, and have pain
	
The list of cases which are commonly recognised are:
	Nominative		(nothing added)
	Accusative		-e
	Dative			-kkə or -nə
	Sociative		-ootaə
	Locative		-il
	Instrumental	-aal
	Genative		-utae or -re

Variants in the case ending are for phonological differences, and may change when the 
word ends in consonant.


Refer to the test suite for sample sentences.
Ungrammatical cases which could be developed, but haven't in the test cases could be:
#	using something other than DAT in with be hungry
#	using DAT with verbs other than be hungry
#	could use the wrong case ending for the phonological ending




Negation
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Affirmative copular sentences use 2 'being' verbs:
	aanaə
	unataə
	
The corresponding negative forms of those verbs are
	alla
	illa
	
raaman daooktaar aanaə
Raman doctor be-PRES
Raman is a doctor

raaman daooktaar alla
Raman is not a doctor

kutatai viitatail unataə
child house-LOC be-PRES
the child is at home

kutatai viitatail illa
the child is not at home

Negation of other verbs is accomplished by adding illa to the end of the verb.
Past and present tense take illa as a suffix with a loss of the final u.
avan patahiccu			he studied
avan patahicilla		he did not study
avan patahikkunnu		he studies
avan patahikunnilla		he does not study

The negative of future forms is the infinitive or the stem of the verb + illa
avan patahikkum			he will study
avan patahikkilla		he will not study

Modals have irregular forms of creating negative cases.



Matrix yes-no questions
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Yes-no questions are marked with the interrogative particle -oo.
The declarative and the corresponding yes-no question are the same aside from the addition of -oo.
To negate the sentence, the particle is attached to the end of the sentence.

avan vanni
he come-PAST
He came

avan vannoo
he come-PAST-IP
Did he come?

avala varum
She will come

avala varumoo
Will she come?

The suffix -ee is used in sentences containing one of the negative elements: illa and alla.
In this case, illa has been appended to the verb come, to create the negative form: didn't come.
avar vannilla
they come-PAST-NEG
They didn't come

avar vannillee
they come-PAST-NEG-IP
Didn't they come?

The suffix may sometimes be added to the main verb to negate the sentence.
(In some cases this leads to the negation of a phrase, rather than the whole sentence.)

atinnə aayiram ruupa vila unataoo
it-DAT thousand rupee price be-PRES-IP
Does it cost 1000 rupees?

atinnə aayiram ruupa unataoo vila 
it-DAT thousand rupee be-PRES-IP price
Does it cost 1000 rupees?



Embedded clauses (declarative, interrogative)
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Indirect questions are embedded in the main clause by using the Quotative Prticiple (QP) ennə.
(All of the examples used the verb 'asked.'
I can't find any examples yet of these phrased as a yes-no question.)

kumaar naalae varumoo ennə kutatai coodiccu
Kumar tomorrow come-FUT QP child ask-PAST
the child asked whether Kumar would come tomorrow.

aar-aanaə vannatə ennə acchan coodiccu
who-be-PRES come-PAST-NOML QP father ask-past
Father asked who came

Modals
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The modal verbs (expressed as a prefix for a verb, verb, or suffix for a verb) in Malayalam are
	-aam	become
	-anam	want
	-atte	to be suitable
	kali	can
	sa:dhik-	can
	okk-	can
	parr-	can
	
Modal suffixes can be used to express potential.
Physical ability, learned ability and permission may be expressed by a dative 
subject, and the modal suffic -aam appended to the verb.

enikkə kuraccə duuram veegam nataakkaam
I-DAT a little distance fast walk-can
I can walk fast for a short distance

avannə nannaayi imgliisha samsaarikkaam
he-DAT well English speak-ABIL
he can speak English well




Coordination
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Sentences are joined more often by subordination than coordination
Sentences can be simply juxtoposed without any marker

avan rotatai tinnu valalaavum kutaiccu
he bread eat-PAST water-also drink-PAST
he ate bread (and) drank water

Coordination can be marked specifically by appending -um to each of the items coordinated.
This can be used to group a subject NP and an object NP, or to group a noun and an adverb together.
There were 4 different examples in the text.
The test cases deal only with Cases I and II.

Case I - same verb, different subjects, intransitive verb
raaghavan vannu
Raghavan came

kumaar vannu
Kumar came

raaghavanum kumaarum vannu
Raghavan-COORD Kumar-COORD came-PAST

Case II - transitive verb, same verb, subject and object NPs are coordinated
raaman kr^shanaane kanatau
Raman Krishnan-ACC see-PAST

goovindan maadhavane kanatau
Govindan Madhavan-ACC see-PAST

raaman kr^shanaaneyum goovindan maadhavaneyum kanatau
Raman Krishnan-ACC-COORD Govindan Madhavan-ACC-COORD see-PAST

Case III - transitive verb, same verb, noun and adverb coordinated
siita innale kooleejil ceernnu
Sita yesterday college-LOC join-PAST

raadha innə kooleejil ceernnu
Radha today college-LOC join-PAST
Radha joined college today

siita innaleyum raadha innum kooleejil ceernnu
Sita yesterday-COORD Radha today-COORD college-LOC join-PAST

Case IV - different verbs
(Change to infinitive form, and add a dummy verb for do at the end.)

raaman vannu
Raman come-PAST

kr^shanaane pooyi
Krishnan go-PAST

raaman varikayum kr^shanaane pookukayum ceytu
Raman come-INFIN-COORD Krishnan go-INFIN-COORD do-past


